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Odoric of Pordenone, Friar Minor, (Odorico Mattiussi or Mattiuzzi) was an Italian late-medieval Franciscan friar and missionary explorer. His account of his visit to China was an important source for the account of John Mandeville; many of the incredible reports in Mandeville have proven to be garbled versions of Odoric's eyewitness descriptions. ==Life== Odoric was born at Villanova, a hamlet now belonging to the town of Pordenone in Friuli, in or about 1286. He came from the Italian family of the Mattiussi, one of the families in charge of defending the town of Pordenone in the name of Ottokar II, King of Bohemia. This later gave rise to the unsubstantiated rumours that the family was of Bohemian origin.〔 (Tilatti, Andrea. "ODORICO da Pordenone." ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani''. Vol. 79. )〕 According to the ecclesiastical biographers, in early years he took the vows of the Franciscan order and joined their convent at Udine, the capital of Friuli. In 1296 Odoric went as a missionary to the Balkans, and then to the Mongols in southern Russia.〔( Habig ofm ed., Marion, "Blessed Odoric Matiussi of Pordenone", ''The Franciscan Book of Saints'', Franciscan Herald Press, 1959 )〕 Friar Odoric was dispatched to the East in April 1318. Starting from Padua, he went to Constantinople via Venice and then crossed the Black Sea to Trebizond.〔 From there he traveled and preached in Armenia, Media, and Persia. In all these countries the Franciscans had founded mission centers.〔 From Sultanieh he proceeded by Kashan and Yazd, and turning thence followed a somewhat indirect route by Persepolis and the Shiraz and Baghdad regions, to the Persian Gulf. With another friar, James of Ireland, as his companion, he sailed from Ormus to India,〔 landing at Thana, near Bombay. At this city four Franciscan friars, three of them Italian and the fourth a Georgian, had suffered martyrdom shortly before their arrival at the hands of the Muslim governor.〔 The bones of the martyred friars had been collected by Friar Jordanus Catalani, a Dominican (the first Catholic bishop in India, sent for the Diocese of Quilon) who carried them to Supera—the Suppara of the ancient geographers, near the modern Vasai, about 26 miles north of Bombay, and buried them there. Odoric tells that he disinterred these relics and carried them with him on his further travels. He also visited Puri, giving one of the earliest accounts of the Chariot Festival of the Hindu God Jagannath to the western world In his own account of 1321, Odoric reported how the people put the "idols" on chariots, and the King and Queen and all the people drew them from the "church" with song and music. From India Oderic sailed in a junk to Sumatra, visiting various ports on the northern coast of that island, and thence to Java, to the coast (it would seem) of Borneo, to Champa〔Maspero, G., 2002, The Champa Kingdom, Bangkok: White Lotus Co., Ltd., ISBN 9747534991〕 (Indochina), and to Guangzhou (Canton), at that time known as Chin-Kalan or Great China (Mahachin). From Guangzhou he travelled overland to the great ports of Fujian, at one of which, then called Zayton Xiamen (Amoy) harbour, he founded two houses of his order; in one of these he deposited the bones of the brethren who had suffered in India. From Fuzhou Oderic struck across the mountains into Zhejiang and visited Hangzhou, then renowned, under the name of Cansay, Khanzai, or Quinsai (i.e. Kin gsze or royal residence), as the greatest city in the world, of whose splendours Odoric, like Marco Polo, Marignolli, or Ibn Batuta, gives notable details. Passing northward by Nanjing and crossing the Yangzi, Odoric embarked on the Grand Canal of China and travelled to the headquarters of the Great Khan (probably Yesün Temür Khan), namely the city of Cambalec (AKA Cambaleth, Cambaluc, &c.) or present-day Beijing, where he remained for three years, probably from 1324 to 1327. He was attached, no doubt, to one of the churches founded by the Franciscan Archbishop John of Monte Corvino, at this time in extreme old age. Oderic did not return to Italy till the end of 1329 or the beginning of 1330; but, as regards intermediate dates, all that we can deduce from his narrative or other evidence is that he was in western India soon after 1321 (pretty certainly in 1322) and that he spent three years in China between the opening of 1323 and the close of 1328. On one of his trips, his ship was nearly capsized by a typhoon but they landed safely in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Philippines. He is said to have held a Mass there, in around 1324. That would have pre-dated the Mass celebrated in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, which is generally regarded as the first Mass in the Philippines, by some 197 years. However, historian William Henry Scott concluded after examining Odoric's writings about his travels that he likely never set foot on Philippine soil and, if he did, there is no reason to think that he celebrated Mass. Oderic's return voyage is less clearly described. Returning overland across Asia, through the Land of Prester John (possibly Mongolia), and through Casan, the adventurous traveller seems to have entered Tibet, and even perhaps to have visited Lhasa. After this we trace the friar in northern Persia, in Millestorte, once famous as the Land of the Assassins, in the Elburz highlands. No further indications of his homeward route (to Venice) are given, though it is almost certain that he passed through Tabriz. The vague and fragmentary character of the narrative, in this section, forcibly contrasts with the clear and careful tracing of the outward way. During a part at least of these long journeys the companion of Odric was James of Ireland, an Irishman, as appears from a record in the public books of Udine, showing that shortly after Odoric's death a present of two marks was made to this Irish friar, ''Socio beau Fratris Odorici, amore Dei et Odorici''. Shortly after his return Odoric betook himself to the Minorite house attached to the Friary of St. St. Anthony at Padua, and it was there that in May 1330 he related the story of his travels, which was taken down in homely Latin by Friar William of Solagna. Travelling towards the papal court at Avignon, Odoric fell ill at Pisa, and turning back to Udine, the capital of his native province, died there. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Odoric of Pordenone」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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